The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Various apparatus, devices, and systems have been developed in order to assist in personal and business organization for centuries. Many popular organizational apparatus include at least one receptacle element such as a shelf and/or hook. Shelving and hooks are useful for a wide range of items, such as books, magazines, fine china, toys, pictures, decorations, foodstuffs, and tools. Organizational systems utilizing shelving and/or hooks have even found significant application in the bathrooms of people's homes, such as in the form of the popular “shower caddy.”
A typical shower caddy is configured to hang from a showerhead pipe and comprises a mostly rigid frame, usually integrated with at least one shelf useful for receiving one or more soaps, body washes, shampoos, and the like. Many shower caddies also include one or more hooks for hanging frequently used personal care items including washcloths, loofahs, poufs, sponges, and razors.
Some difficulties with currently available shower caddies arise when trying to accommodate the ever-increasing amount of personal care products on the market. New soaps, body washes, shampoos, conditioners, shaving creams, lotions, and similar products are continuously being introduced for sale, all with their own shapes and sizes of containers. Users may find themselves frustrated when a particular shower caddy is too small to fit all of their products, forcing products that don't fit to be placed in potentially dangerous locations, such as the shower floor, or is too big and wastes valuable space. Space issues are further compounded in situations wherein multiple users share a shower caddy. Additionally, a user may purchase one type of shower caddy at one time, and be forced to purchase a more appropriate shower caddy later if the user's circumstances change, such as obtaining more or fewer roommates, requiring more or fewer personal care products, etc.
In response to user frustrations, some shower caddies have been created that comprise one or more shelves that are movable. Such shelves may be rotatable, slidable, addable, and/or removable in an effort to configure them in such a way so as to accommodate various amounts of products of various sizes. However, the size of the frames of these caddies remains fixed, thereby substantially limiting how much the shelves may be adjusted.
Currently available shower caddies are a source of further annoyance when they break. A broken shower caddy requires a user to purchase a brand new caddy, even if only a small portion of the caddy is broken. This creates a significant amount of material and financial waste that many users would prefer to avoid.
Additional limitations involved with shower caddies include the fact that currently available shower caddies are at a fixed height; that is, users who may be limited by how high they can reach, such as small children, the elderly, and/or those with disabilities and/or injuries, may not be able to reach conventional shower caddies which are typically mounted on a showerhead pipe with no lengthening or other height-adjustable capabilities. In some instances, upon trying to reach shower caddies that are too high, these types of users may injure themselves unnecessarily.
Given the foregoing, what is needed are organizational apparatus which facilitate the ability to adjust the length and/or size of the frame of a particular apparatus, such as a shower caddy, as well as adjust, add, and/or remove at least one receptacle element associated with the apparatus, such as a shelf or hook. Organizational apparatus that can easily be repaired by replacing parts when broken are also desirable.